GJ man told he already voted; elections office cites human error

Imagine getting ready to vote, only to find out that a ballot with your name on it has already been cast. For one Grand Junction man, that's exactly what happened, just one day before he was set to vote.

"I've watched all the debates this year, and really kept up with everything the best that I could," Jared Detton said.

Detton said he's never been more prepared for an election; he knows all about the issues and the candidates, the last step was to just call and verify his address.

"I asked the lady to make sure that I was good to vote tomorrow, which is Election Day, and she told me that I had already voted, and I said that's not correct,” Detton said.

Detton was told he had early- voted at a Fruita ballot center.

"I was just a little irritated because it makes you feel like you've lost your right to vote," he said.`So Mesa County clerk and recorder Sheila Reiner did an audit of the Fruita polling site to get to the bottom of it, pulling all voter cards from the location.

"Clearly what had happened was that his date of birth was shared by a gentleman that didn't get credit, so we pulled this card out and we see that it's definitely not him," Reiner said.

Reiner said it was just a case of human error, the election judge uses the date of birth to pull up a voter record, and when the list of names popped up, the judge clicked on the wrong name.

"The other thing to mention is he wouldn't have been turned away from the polls tomorrow, even if he hadn't called in and checked with us ahead of time, he would have been given a provisional ballot," Reiner said.

Even with his voter status fixed, and a new, fresh ballot waiting for him Tuesday, Detton said it's things like this that make him question the system.

“They need to make it more precise, especially with the way that technology is today, you think that they could do something to improve it," he said.

Reiner said it was a simple mistake, and that it's happened in past elections too, but that so far, this is the only case she's had where an election judge has clicked the wrong name this year.

The elections office said make sure you show up to the polls Tuesday, even if the election judge can't fix a problem you may be having, you will always be given a provisional ballot, and nobody will be turned away.

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